


Clipped

by Zeeboa



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Hurt Lance, Hurt/Comfort, Klance if you squint with your eyes wide open, Langst, M/M, Team as Family, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-18
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2018-12-31 04:55:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12124980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zeeboa/pseuds/Zeeboa
Summary: Lance hasn't been himself since the attack on the castle.





	Clipped

Five, there were five more that fell out today. He picks up the dull brown feathers that litter the bathroom floor his heart heavy. These were his primaries and at this rate he wasn't going to be able to lift off the ground. He’s not molting, there was no way because he’d already molted for the year. He extends his wings and winces on top of the feather loss his wing joints ache. He can see the patches of bare skin where so many feathers have already fallen off and on top of that, his wings are just a mess feathers tangled with each other and grimey. Normally he’d be on top of wing care but he can't find the energy to take care of them anymore. He could ask Shiro for help but he didn't think he could take the “You gotta try a little harder Lance talk” The least he could do is take a bath. Get the grime of himself and his wings. 

There was only one tub big enough for the Paladin’s to wash their wings, showers could do the job too but for a deep clean, a bath was needed. He grabs a towel shaking away the dizziness when he stands and heads for the bath..  
He remembers leaving his room but now he’s sitting at the table a spoon of green goo in his hand and he doesn't remember at all how he got here. A body sits down next to him.  
“You with us Lance?” the voice is soft like they’re trying not to startle him.  
He wants to turn his head to look at them and at least he thinks he does. But next thing he knows his head slams hard against the table as he's falling to the floor flipping over the goo with him. God it's just a struggle to even move after that. There's a pulsating pain in his head and whoever’s yelling isn’t helping. There are hands on him trying to push him upright. He thinks its Allura because she doesn't remember to take into account his wings. One second he's there the next he's thrown into a world of pain. It feels like he's being stabbed in the back a red hot knife carving into the junction of his back and wing. Someone’s screaming then nothing.

Lance was in the healing pod again this time for reasons unknown. He looks relaxed inside the pod compared to the twitchy agony displayed earlier.  
“What’s wrong with him?” Hunk is staring at back at Coran the worry clear on his expressive face.  
Coran frowns “We don’t know this has never happened before.” The screen he was staring at had the normal readings for the Paladins there was nothing different at all yet Lance was seriously sick. They’d noticed it the first few days he’d left the healing pod after the explosion. How winded he was on the training deck, how his food was left nearly untouched and his exhaustion. He was sleeping more than he was awake and then this. 

They’re all peering in at him when the pod beeps all too soon releasing him in a cloud of feathers. He honestly looks worse than he did when he went in and that’s really saying something.  
“It’s c-c-cold.” he’s shivering violently clutching the closest person. 

When he finally stops shivering it’s only because he’s in the heated bath he failed to get to earlier. He’s exhausted and his wings ache more than they did before but every time he lays his head in his arms to doze someone wakes him up. “Lance,how are you feeling?” He peers up at Shiro too tired to do more. “My wings hurt.” He winces trying to draw them closed. Pidge sits in front of him grabbing his hands “Hey, Keith’s gonna clean up your wings, we’re gonna figure out what’s going on Ok?” He nods laying his head on her hands

It takes near an hour to clean his wings. The water tinted pink with too many feathers floating around. Lance had long since checked out, Keith’s soothing fingers lulling him to sleep.  
Keith looks at the rest of them worried “I don’t know if there's any other way to describe this but his wings are falling apart,they’re cold like theres no blood flow.” “What do you mean?” “His feathers are breaking some of them are just crumbling. And where they’re falling out there's no sign of any new feathers.” None of the Paladins have ever heard of any condition similar to what he’s describing. The door to the bathroom slides open and Coran pants winded in the doorway guilt eating away at his features. “It's the pods, it's been the pods. They’re programmed for Alteans.” What he’s saying is obvious but they need to hear it and in a broken whisper they do. “We didn’t account for his wings and the pod is trying to “heal” them.” They look at their sleeping teammate devastated. 

He wakes once when they’re moving him to the common room where they’d made a large nest to use their own body heat to keep him warm. They all needed to be there to support him when he woke.  
It was no secret that Lance loved to fly. If he wasn’t training he was flying. When he couldn’t sleep a couple laps through the castle fixed it right up. And to anyone who would listen he’d describe the long flights he and his family would go on. How the wind through his hair was one of the best feelings in the world. It was one of his defining characteristics, what made him the man he was today. But with those stories of the past came the ever present sadness in his eyes.Aside from the picture of his family that he’d managed to bring, it was the only other thing that kept him connected with them. 

When he wakes from a flightless nightmare he knows immediately there’s something wrong. No matter how hard he tries, his wings won’t move. He clambers over the rest of his team his breath caught in his throat. Lance crashes into a wall on his way into the bathroom his wings creating a deadweight momentum. His knuckles are white when he grabs the sink. If the other paladins hadn’t woken up from his hasty exit, the devastated wail that rips through the castle does.

They find him in the bathroom his wings swinging loosely at his back and there's no consoling him. In those moments all they can do is let him cry it out. When the tears finally stop falling he's selectively unresponsive, his head on Keith’s lap. “How’re you doing Lance?” Lance answers with more sniffles and curls into a tighter ball. “I want to go home.” Keith’s heart clenches and all he can do is hold him a little tighter.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic I guess. Not the first one I posted but like when I started writing it was this.  
> Anyways as always thanks for reading this I really appreciate it really.
> 
> Find me on [ Tumblr ](https://wriiteitdown.tumblr.com)
> 
> Edit: The wonderful Cimmerianhuntress on tumblr wrote a happier continuation please check it out! [ Here! ](https://cimmerianhuntress.tumblr.com/post/172095549993/clipped)


End file.
